Idiotic Architectural Fantasy

The winners of the 2010 eVolo Skyscraper Competition are, as my mother would say, 'remarkable'.  I'm going to overlook the winner, an absolutely ridiculous prison in the sky (no, really, where "the inmates would live in a “free” and productive community with agricultural fields and factories that would support the host city below", which is a good thing because I, for one, have always wanted to live literally in the shadow of another city) - yes, I'm going to go right pass that bit of inane, thoughtless stupidity and move on to an honourable-mention winner, the 'Art of Building High Skyscraper in Paris', by the French Atelier Zundel & Cristea.

Their website says that they always begin a project with a deep analysis of geographical, economic, and regulatory issues, without ever trying to rely on theoretical justifications.  Mm-hmm.  So, in the most densely-populated Western city, a city far more dense than any other in Europe, they propose a 'skyscraper-city' in Beaugrenelle, the skyscrapers-on-a-concrete-podium experiment on the south bank of the Seine, in the 15th arrondissement.  Unfortunately, the designers of this scheme (it's a 'spatial texture', you dig?) forgot to put in a site visit; had they done so, they would have found that the idea didn't work and that the podium is an urban wasteland.  Maybe this is where I come out as a reactionary traditionalist, but a far better way to redevelop bits of Beaugrenelle would be to introduce the tight arrangements of pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use streets with perimeter blocks, courtyards and small parks that have made the rest of the city so famous.

This is just one of countless daft architectural proposals.  Naturally, they're all carbon-neutral, environmentally-friendly, zero-waste, uplifting, beautifying, etc. etc. etc.  Except they're not.  Generally they're no more than highly-egotistical artefacts of highly egotistical, reflection-free, contextually-unfettered minds, and I have no idea how they then go on to win prizes.

Well, I think it's time to establish a new prize:  Idiotic Architectural Fantasy of the Month.  Check back soon for more entries.  Why, maybe I'll set up a competition.  E-mail your entries in...